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Kauzasian
Kauzasian was a language spoken from 1000BK to 200AK in the Ydtobogȧn Peninsula in Amalan. Unlike its predecessor, Pimogam, Kauzasian had a high amount of phonemes, and due to that, a new writing system was made from the previously used Ydtobogȧndeki, called ozdeghi/ozdeɣi "new marks". There are multiple romanizations (which are generally both orthographically and phonemically based) used for Kauzasian. This article (mostly) uses the Marked romanization. Phonology The Kauzasian language's most altered part from its Pimogam counterpart was its phonology. Consonants Kauzasian, much unlike its predecessor(s), distinguished voicing and aspiration in stops and voicing only in fricatives. Due to a new rounded front vowel, it also gained a new approximant. Part of this was due to lingering influence from Gigxkpoyan languages. *Allophone of velar counterpart next to a front vowel or palatal approximant. **Allophone of alveolar counterpart next to a retroflex consonant. Vowels Kauzasian regained mid vowels due to outside influence and later developed new rounded front vowels, usually where other related languages of the time would develop /ɨ/. The exact nature of /a/ is uncertain; usually its frontness depends on the preceding vowel/semivowel. Inflectional Sound Changes Some sound changes only occur in specific forms of a verb or noun. They are represented by markings in the tables with the inflectional suffixes. Rhotic Change For Kauzasian's new retroflex PoA to develop, some major sound changes have to occur. A large part of this takes place in declination and conjugation. The inflection tables use the asterisk (*) to represent possible rhotic change. If the asterisk is in front of an , the only exists in the ending if no rhotic change occurs. If the asterisk comes before the , then the letter/phone will be present in the ending, regardless of any rhotic change. The following table shows the sounds affected by rhotic change (with what they become on the left). * This change only occurs if the sound follows a back vowel. ** This change only occurs if the sound follows a front vowel. Fronted O and U In some cases, /o u/ and /ø y/ are allophones, varying mainly due to a nearby front unrounded vowel (or the absence of one). Verbs Unlike nouns, verbs had only one inflectional paradigm. Many more verbs are irregular, since many regular verbs became moderately or heavily irregular. Some examples of heavily irregular verbs are uaď, hek, niti, ťnend. Person and number were not marked in verbs, and in other related languages aren't either. Tense, Aspect, and Mood Verbs distinguished four things: tense, aspect, mood, and voice. The three tenses are: anterior past, past, non-past. The anterior past was used to express the pluperfect, the remote past, and the relative past. The past was used to express the perfect, and the recent past. The non-past expressed the present, the future, and relative future. The five aspects are: repetitive, initial, progressive, final, constant. The repetitive expressed habituality and iterativity. The initial expressed the beginning of an action/state. It also expressed simple present in the present. The progressive expressed both the continuous and the progressive. The final expressed the end of an action/state. The constant, unlike the other aspects, does not exist in the first subjunctive or imperative. The statement which uses the constant aspect in its verb(s) always has been and will be (or is wanted to be, in the first subjunctive) true as far as the speaker knows. The four moods are: indicative, subjunctive, subjunctive II, and imperative. Both subjunctives were used differently than in Pimogam. The first subjunctive corresponds to the subjunctive and potential moods of most languages that have them. The second subjunctive was mostly used for the conditional (which is why it's sometimes referred to as the conditional mood), but it also expressed an optative-like mood. The interrogative was not considered a separate mood, and unlike other moods was expressed using the auxiliary adverb kü. Romanizations Romanizing Kauzasian is difficult due to the retroflex phonemes and the three laterals. Multiple different methods are used (and are all considered correct), although some are favored more than others. Marked The most commonly used romanization is referred to as the Marked romanization. This is mainly due to the use of many diacritics to represent an Ozdeghi letter with only one Latin letter. b t d ʈ ɖ k g β θ ð s z ʂ ʐ x ɣ h l ɬ ɮ e y ø o a ə ɥ w ʰ <'> Lettered The lettered romanization uses the letter in many digraphs (while using for /h/), although it still uses some diacritics. b t d ʈ ɖ k g β θ ð s z ʂ ʐ x ɣ h l ɬ ɮ e y ø o a ə ɥ w ʰ <'>